by Ian Marshall, Editor

Choe Il and Yoo Eunchong had needed the full five games to beat Spain’s Alvaro Robles and Galia Dvorak, eventually succeeding by the very narrowest margins (8-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 13-11); for Kim Song I and Suh Hyowon, life for the two defensively minded players was less fraught.

Against Uzbekistan’s Olga Kim and Regina Kim, they secured a straight games success (11-4, 11-5, 11-2).

“Although we only practised on the first day of the Korea Open and before this match, we played well together. Our communication is very good too. I told Song-I, “let’s give it our all” and she did. We had a discussion for some signals on where to serve and receive. At first there were some difficulties because she uses different signs in North Korea but now we are very familiar and can understand easily. At first, we were nervous, because it was our first match. Later, we were relaxed and started discussing on how to manage the match. I wanted to participate in doubles match, it is a great honour to be her partner, I can learn a lot from her; this Korea Open is our first doubles, our first goal was to pass the qualification stage. Now, we want to progress step by step” Suh Hyowon

Success for the Korean Peninsula but there was also defeat in the preliminary round of the Women’s Doubles event; the DPR Korea duo of Choe Hyon Hwa and Pyon Song Gyong experienced a narrow reverse at the hands of Singapore’s Lin Ye and Zeng Jian (8-11, 13-11, 13-15, 11-9, 11-9).